Chusovaya
Chusovaya is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 57.49°, 59.06°
About Chusovaya
The Chusovaya (Russian: Чусова́я) is a river flowing in Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast and Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia. A tributary of the Kama, which in turn is a tributary of the Volga, discharges into the Chusovskoy Cove of the Kamsky Reservoir. The river is remarkable in that it originates on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in Asia, crosses the mountains, and mostly runs on their western slopes in Europe. The Chusovaya River is widely used as a source of water. In particular, its water is taken from the Volchikhinsky Reservoir, 37 square kilometres (14 mi2), to the Verkhneisetsky Reservoir to supply the major city of Yekaterinburg. Fifteen smaller reservoirs are spread over about 150 tributaries of the river.
There are numerous metal and coal mines along the Chusovaya, and the river was intensively used to deliver their production to the western Russia. However, industrial navigation nearly halted with the development of railways in the early 20th century. Chusovoy is the major remaining port on the river.
The Chusovaya River is famous for its hundreds of large rocks located along the shoreline which are the major tourist attraction of the area.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Chusovaya (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Chusovaya in Depth
History
The river had long been inhabited by people, as evident from numerous Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements found on the river banks. The 15th Century chronicler Giacomo Filippo Foresti (a.k.a. Jacobus Philippus Foresti da Bergamo) mentioned a river in the area named the Thisageta, and the 19th Century archaeologist Sir Ellis Minns proposed that the Chusovaya may originally have been named after the Thyssagetae, a little-known steppe tribe who apparently lived in the area.
In the Middle Ages, the river basin was mostly populated by Bashkirs, Mansi and Komi-Permyaks. It is assumed that the Battle of Chulmandore, in which Komi-Permyaks defeated Mongols, occurred near the river mouth. The Chusovaya River was first mentioned in 1396 in the Novgorod chronicles.
Ecology
According to the Office for Environmental Protection of Perm Oblast, the water of the river near the town of Chusovoy is contaminated and does not meet the standards for the drinking and sanitary water. In 2006, the content of copper exceeded the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) twice, manganese 8 times, iron 5 times, petroleum 2 times (it was 21 times MPC in 2003) and hexavalent chromium 1.5 times (mostly due to the plant "Chrompic" in Pervouralsk). The biggest polluters of the river are Chusovskoy Steel Works and Chusovskoy Gorvodocanal.
Tourism
Chusovaya has long been known for its rock formations, many of which have poetic names. They pose no dangers to light vessels and attract tourism. A tourist route was formed here in the 1960s and was visited by about 3,000 people per year. In one summer season of the 1980s, several tens of thousands tourists drafted along the river.
The major objects of attraction are the river banks, boitsy rocks and their caves and grottoes. Many of these rocks are under state protection as natural monuments. About 200,000 people annually visit the Kungur Cave near Chusovoy. This labyrinth of karst caves was formed as a result of dissolution of gypsum and anhydrites by water at a depth of 60 to 80 metres (200 to 260 ft) and is explored only up to about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi).
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Chusovaya (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Chusovaya: Key Facts
| Length | 735 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 222 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 47,600 km² |
| Source | Bolshoe Chusovskoe |
| Mouth | Kama |
| Drainage system | Volga Basin |
| Tributaries | Sylva, Serebryanka, Koyva, Usva, Sulyom, Khmelikha, Shalashnaya, Lysva |
Facts from Wikidata Q756091 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Chusovaya: Quick Answers
- Where is Chusovaya?
- Chusovaya is located in Russia, at 57.4920° N, 59.0562° E.
- Are there dams on the Chusovaya?
- No dam on the Chusovaya is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.